By: James K. Attaglo Wilson
Two brothers Kevin and Jerome Boateng will be wishing bad against each other today when Germany and Ghana come face-to-face at the Estadio Castelao in Fortaleza.
In South Africa 2010, it was Jerome who won the bragging right over his brother when the Germans won 1 – 0 over the Ghanaians courtesy a Mesut Ozil’s left footed shot but Kevin is bent on turning the scales this time around.
History favors Ghana in this clash as the German’s have fallen flat in most of their second matches in FIFA World Cup but the question here is, Can the Black Stars stand Joachim Low’s tactical spring board in today’s encounter?
Both Kwesi Appiah and his opponent Joachim Low plays the 4-2-3-1 tactical layout which is a relatively defensive formation using two holding midfielders not only to screen for defence but also initiate attacks from midfield.
One of the key factors in this game will depend largely on the two holding middies of both sides. Sulley Muntari, Rabiu Mohammed for Ghana and Sami Khedira, Philipp for Germany. The two German holding middies are better than their opponent defensively because they can all defend but in Ghana’s case Rabiu is very good when it comes to defending whiles Sulley Muntari is dangerous with his long passes and blistering shots.
Again, Philipp Lahm will give Kwesi Appiah a lot to think about. Lahm is the most tactically discipline player that any football coach would like to have in his team and for the Ghana tactician to win this game he needs first to eliminate the German captain from the game.
In the three attacking midfield position Kwesi Appiah is likely to field Andre Ayew, Asamoah Gyan, Kwadwo Asamoah/Kevin Prince Boateng as against Mario Gotze, Mesut Ozil and Thomas Muller for the German side.
Here too, both sides looks evenly matched except that ‘the fox in the box’, Thomas Muller can make the difference once he’s allowed to enter the eighteen box and we saw him do it in their game against the Portuguese.
Ghana lost it first game to the United States and can’t afford to lose for the second time as that will shatter their dreams of progressing to the 1/16th stage. Joachim Low would also like to qualify with a game to spare which makes this game more dicey to predict.
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